17This chapter deals with 3 of the biggest grammar rules tested on the SAT: Subject Verb Agreement, Verb Tense,
and Parallelism.
Each of these grammar rules tests something to do with verbs, and together they account for roughly 40 to 50%
of the errors on the grammar portion of the SAT. So know them and know them well! Here’s something they all
have in common: The way to spot these errors is to LOOK FOR UNDERLINED VERBS!
Let’s deal with our first grammar rule: Subject Verb Agreement.
Rule #1: Subject Verb Agreement ...........................................................
How to Find: Underlined verbs, especially simple past and present tense verbs.
How to Fix: Make the verb agree in number with the subject it refers to.
Let’s refer to Subject Verb Agreement as SVA from here on out.
We’ve already discussed SVA a bit: Singular verbs go with singular nouns, and plural verbs go with plural
nouns. She studies versus They study. From here it gets a bit fancier.
SVA Trick #1
The following pronouns are ALWAYS SINGULAR:
each either neither all the ones and all the bodys
(one someone anyone no one everyone somebody anybody nobody everybody)
ETS likes to keep you from noticing these
pronouns by separating them from the verb
with a prepositional phrase.
Put a line through all prep phrases!
Prep phrases are easy to spot: They begin with a preposition.
of the dogs... with her mother...
by the water... about the chemistry test...